Temptation Inside Of Your Heart

Last week Thurston Moore released a cover of Velvet Underground's Temptation Inside Of Your Heart in honor of the birthday of Sterling Morrison, former guitarist of VU. The song is from VU lost album from 1969, released decades after these songs were recorded. Moore grabs the song and makes it one of his own. His incomparable guitar playing is a perfect match for this sadly forgotten song. It is well known that Moore enjoys playing, but rarely has he been seen in such good spirits. Perhaps this is what the Velvets would sound like today.

In the original, Morrison and Tucker chat in the background before they start singing the backing vocals. Also one of the better songs from their later work and break-up in the original.

 

Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

This week, we take another look back at the 70's, plus a few older and newer songs.

1965: Bob Dylan

1972: Uriah Heep

1972: Mott The Hoople

1972: Randy Newman

1977: Thin Lizzy

1991: Metallica

1971: Rod Stewart

1964: Martha and the Vandellas

1970: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

1989: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

1980: David Bowie

1959: The Coasters

1971: Cher

1973: The Velvet Underground

1987: M|A|R|R|S

Monday's Long Song

 

In 1988 Spacemen 3 released Performance, their first live album, recorded during a gig in Melkweg, Netherlands. It shows them at the climax of their musical work between their studio albums The Perfect Describtion and Playing With Fire when they gave as their great combination of distorted guitars and maybe the best psychedelic music since the Velvets. 

The concert was more dedicated to the likes of Pete Kember and Jason Pierce than promoting their last album because they played cover versions of their likes. Songs by MC5 and Roky Erickson. Their version of Rollercoaster shows everything Spacemen 3 were famous for. 

Spacemen 3 - Rollercoaster

New Song On Sunday

 

Anja Plaschg aka Soap&Skin is currently one of the most interesting musicians from Austria. Two years ago, she played at a festival in Austria where she exclusively performed cover versions. This gave rise to the idea of recording a complete album with versions by other artists. Instead of just re-recording popular hits, she dug deep into music history to find the right songs for her.

Plaschg knows how to give her songs/interpretations a dark, minimalist and melancholic flavor that gives you goosebumps in the best moments. It takes a lot of self-confidence to cover a song from David Bowie's last album and recreate it with monotonous beats, horns and a combination of industrial and folk elements. However, the respect for the original is not lost at any point. The song was also excellently realized in their self-designed video. In short, one of the most beautiful cover versions of this year.

As a bonus one of the best versions of a classic Velvet Underground tune.

Run Run Run

 

Run, run, run, run, run, take a drag or two says the drug anthem of Velvet Underground. This was my first thought when I heard that the lead single of The Libertines new album share the same title.  I thought that they were just a part of history but it seems that they are still alive and able to record a whole album. To be honest I was never a fan of The Libertines and the extroverted self-portrayal of Peter Doherty got on my nerves. Of course they made a couple of very good songs at that time but I can't remember playing them during the last years. Nevertheless, I was curious if they were more relevant than before. I only know this song and they recorded a traditional/poppy indie song, still with elements of punk and rock with punchy guitar riffs and an energetic rhythm section and remarkable hooks. The song is more than okay and I think this will be a hit for them and a big hype will be started. For me not the road in music I go right now.

Violet Drive

Kerala Dust is a band formed in London in 2016 and now living and producing in Berlin. As they said about themself, they grew up with the sound of Tom Waits, Can and Velvet Underground you can hear references to them in their sound. They added to their rhythmic sound a bit of Talking Heads and dancefloor and you have a melange that is incredible. They released their last album earlier this year but I forgot to listen to it. But now I found the time to enjoy their unique kind of music. 

 

Dub Housing

 

A few days ago while I looked for something other I found Dub Housing by Pere Ubu. I almost forgot that I had a CD version from their 1978 album. Formed in Cleveland in the late 70's they created their very own version of rock music. Inspired by punk as a new form of music they added elements of krautrock and free jazz to their cosmos. Seldom heard a darker and dangerous sound like on their first albums. If any music can hurt than theirs. I know this is not the cup of tea for everyone and lots of people would annoy this kind of music but if you are willing to to go to the darkest chapter in punk/new wave influenced music you have to listen to this. A tour de force of experimental sound. On the other side many bands were influenced by them. Once I read that they were the link between Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, Soft Machine, Brian Eno and This Heat and I have to say this is true.

Pere Ubu - Codex

Pere Ubu - Dub Housing

Pere Ubu - Ubu Dance Party

My Mum Was Nico's Driver

 

A few days ago a song by a band I've never heard before came to my ears and never let me go since. HANN is a Manchester based indie-pop band and derived by the singers first name Hannah. I don't know if the story of the song is true but it is clever using name dropping in a good pop song. Of course nothing new and exciting but just another good song for the upcoming summer.

The brilliance of the song's lyrics is that I remembered Nico once again. Born in Germany as Christa Päffgen before the war she became a model and moved to New York where Andy Warhol got aware of her. He also was the one who introduced her to Velvet Underground where she got a member of. Although she couldn't sing her voice fitted together perfectly with the Velvet's sound. In 1967 she released her first solo album Chelsea Girl a little masterpiece by her. With the help of her bandmates Reed and Cale and Jackson Browne she created probably the blueprint of doom and gothic sounds that should became decades later famous. On 18 July 1988 Nico swings on her bike; dressed in black leather trousers and other heavy clothes, her emaciated body collapses in the shade at 40 degrees in Ibiza. The woman, who turned the head of many of the most desirable men of the 60s and also became an icon musically, leaves her life on a roadside in the bright sun of Spain. 

Nico - These Days

I'll Be Your Mirror

 

Sometimes I think it is hip to pay tribute to artists and re-recording their songs. Many of them failed because you can't beat the originals recorded decades ago. But there are less tributes that celebrates a great album. This happened a few days ago when the songs of Velvet Undergrounds first album was re-recorded. Different artists from old heroes and young musicians made this tribute worth to listen because their interpretation spreads from similar to the old sound to a very new interpretation of those classic songs. I don't like every of this cover versions but some are really worth to give them a listen because they included them to their very own sound. Anyway, it is a good reason to listen to the fantastic originals once again.

Autumn Sweater

 

Happy new year all. Another year is ahead and this blog will continue even if I struggled sometimes because I thought I had no more ideas what to post. But there are so many songs to be featured and a lot of new releases will appear. So let's start with a band I really loved in the 90's. Yo La Tengo were an American independent band from Hoboken, New Jersey. What made YLT different from other bands of this era was on the one side their talent in songwriting and their taste for making great cover versions (mostly acoustic). The music press compared them as a new kind of Velvet Underground but for me they just played a kind of adult college rock with tempered guitars in a misty mood. This one is from their third album I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One from 1997 and probably their best. Great to hear them once again after years and a good start into the year. 

Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater

Velvet Underground

 

During the last weekend I played a few records by Velvet Underground at my place again and suddenly remembered that Jonathan Richman made a homage to this great band many years ago. His words were wise and describe exactly what the Velvets are and mean to a lot of people. Seldom an artist praised his heroes like he did.And this is not the only reason to feature this song at this place for the first time. 

They were wild like the USA

A mystery band in a New York way

Rock and roll, but not like the rest

And to me, America at it's best

How in the world were they making that sound?

Velvet Underground.

Jonathan Richman - Velvet Underground

Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste

 

As I grubbed in the depth of my hard drive a few days ago I found some songs I didn't listen for a long time and it made me smile to listen to them once again. Once of them was by Galaxie 500 an American alternative band existing four years from 1989 on.  It was the time when American alternative music sounded fresh and new. I really like their sound guitar dominated sounds inspired by The Velvets and Spaceman 3. Sadly they didn't got the recognition they should have because their first two albums should be named as one of the best guitar albums of this decade. This song is from a Peel session in the late 80's.

Galaxie 500 - Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste

Slow Death

Last week I rediscovered a band I really didn't listen to for a very long time. The Leather Nun were formed in 1978 in Gothenburg, Sweden and played a Velvet Underground and Iggy Pop inspired industrial goth rock. I remember their song Slow Death was played almost to dead in many alternative discos in the early 80's. A febrile piece of music dominated by a gloomy and menacing bass, aggressive guitar licks and a morbid voice. After a long time this song hasn't lost any attraction to me.

The Leather Nun - Slow Death

They borrowed their name by an American underground comic and they liked to provoke their audience by being accompanied by strippers when they were on stage and showing adult movies as a part of their live appearance.  Only for a scandalizing moment are this kind of lyrics music acceptable and I am glad not everybody understood the meaning. The music by itself is great.

The Leather Nun - F.F.A.

Purchased (Not Only) By The Cover

It was in 1982 when Lou Reed released his eleventh album The Blue Mask after a few records that were not bad but didn't reached his own level. Together with Velvet Underground collaborator Robert Quinn Reed made one of the best never expected albums from 1982. I loved the way the mixed the guitars separately on the left and right channel. And Lou Reed wrote a few of his most intimate songs since a very long time. He found the balance between intimate ballads and bleeding guitars. The cover features a blue version of the photograph he used on Transformer ten years before. I still love the cover because it is pure and it has a touch of Warhol's Factory.

Lou Reed - Waves Of Fear
Lou Reed - The Gun
Lou Reed - The Blue Mask

Monday's Long Song

In 1968 The Velvet Underground released their second album White Light/White Heat a revolutionary record. It was their first record after they ended their collaboration with Andy Warhol and finally could work on their very own sound. Sterling Morrison once said:

"We were all pulling in the same direction. We may have been dragging each other off a cliff, but we were all definitely going in the same direction.

And you can this in almost every song on this album but the quintessence was Sister Ray. Lou Reed talks about drag queens and a failed orgy while the band is jamming on three chords. And this song is an orgy of distorted, feedback-driven and rough sound where you can listen to instruments like you never heard before. One of the reasons Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto formed Buzzcocks were their both interest in this song.

The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray

The Return of Nico?

Christa Päffgen, better know as Nico one of Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls and the voice of Velvet Underground. She wasn't able to sing but her spoken words made the early songs of the Velvets unique. These days I listened to the first album by Stella Sommer, the leading voice of German Indie-band Die Heiterkeit. I don't think that she tries to copy Nico but her deep voice is close to Nico. But the sound of their songs is very different. Listening to Dark Princess, Dark Prince I remember the early Mekons with their cow-punk drums on Prince Of Darkness. Of course, it is a dark and morbid sound with straight-lined guitar lines, some bar piano and sticky organs but it is probably the perfect soundtrack for a late summer evening with a glass of wine on your balcony.

Back again

During the last years I featured The Limiñanas at this place. For me it is a band that can't make anything wrong. These French couple help oneself by a lot of music from different eras. I can hear influences by Velvet Underground, surf rock, Ennio Morricone and New Order as well. All mixed assorted to their very own unique style. After they released an EP last year they are back with an album that is on heavy rotation at my home and on the way to my office. Give them a little chance and listen and I am sure you won't be disappointed.